Fwd: Pete the Music Maker

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 4:57 PM
Subject: Pete the Music Maker


Things that happened this week:
Sisters conference.
 All the sisters in the mission got together in Rego Park for a day of 

clothing exchanges, salad, and spiritual enlightenment! I got a new
outfit, discovered I don't actually hate salad, and realized that A)
sin and weaknesses are not the same thing. B) the Atonement of Christ
covers both of them, but it's through repentance we can be clean from
sin and through grace that our weakness can be made strong. C) God
shows us our weakness to help us turn to him. When we turn to him in
prayer and ask for help in overcoming our weakness, he can make us
strong! D) there is nothing we can do that will separate us from the
love of God. Literally nothing.

I ate Haitian food.
Haitian spaghetti, which is spicy. Mushroom rice, which is spicier.
This weird combo of cubed beets and carrots mixed in mayo, which turns
pink because of the beets. Also spicy. Legume, which is meat with
other stuff mixed in. Spicy. All the diri (Zooey, or rice) that I can
eat! Mamba, which is Haitian peanut butter. Also spicy. I really
really really like Haitian food. Like a lot. I don't think I'll ever
go back to regular peanut butter. That's a lie because I literally ate
regular peanut butter this morning, but it's because we don't have
mamba.

There was a flood.
It stormed on Friday and our apartment parking lot was full of water
ankle deep. It was so fun!

I drove!
I am now a New York driver. Everyone prepare themselves for when I
come home. Jk, it was only for 15 minutes so I could get passed off to
drive in the future, but there were pedestrians and cars and bicyclists
everywhere and people are crazy. I almost died 0 times, but I felt
like almost dying lots more times than that.

We got taught.
There's this family, a husband and wife, we'd been teaching. I don't
know if said anything about them previously? Anyways, M and
Ch. are awesome. They're super sweet and always have way good
questions and truly want to know the truth. Ch. turned his life
around when he found M and the bible and wow their stories are
amazing! But this week they dropped us. They let us in for our lesson
and immediately started bible bashing in the nicest, most loving way
known to mankind. They were so worried for us because they'd found a
website comparing the bible and the Book of Mormon who's whole point
was to disprove the Book of Mormon. They even bore their testimonies
of Gods love for us. Holy cow. Talk about role reversal. But at the
end they hugged us and gave us hand shakes and gave us back their Book
of Mormon. While we were praying after the lesson I cried some tears
because I just love them so much! It's so hard when we find people who
are almost ready! Their hearts were being hardened and they didn't
even know it. It was so hard to see the gospel slip through their
hands like that! But I know God has a plan for them, and they'll have
more chances when they're ready.

Pete happened.
Pete the music maker, and the subject line of this email. What a guy.
Haha we had all our people cancel on us and so we were in the car
looking at our area book and praying. In the middle of our prayer Pete
tapped on my window. Thinking this was an answer to our prayers, that
we found someone to teach, I unrolled it and instead of teaching a
lesson we ended up telling him we don't date on the mission but we'd
love to see him at church sometime. He asked for a number, so we gave
him the elders. Hopefully Pete gets over the rejection quickly and
gets baptized. We can always hope, right? [In a separate email, Hannah 

explained that Pete told them he makes music to be more attractive to the 

ladies. Hm. Sounds like a couple people she knows. ;)]

Sorry this is so long!
But I just want to take a minute and explain God's love. I can't. It's
too all-encompassing. But try to imagine for a minute someone, your
Father, for instance, loving you so much that He created a world for
you. He sent His only perfect son, Jesus Christ, to live, suffer, and
die for YOU. He knows you, He knows your struggles, He knows your
happiness, He knows all of it. He made you you so you could get back
to Him. He loves you literally no matter what you do. No matter what!
How crazy is that! He constantly forgives, loves, guides, comforts,
all of that because He loves you! No matter what you're dealing with
right now, God is providing a way for you to get through it as we
speak. I know He hasn't forgotten you and He won't ever. If you need a
reminder, open the Book of Mormon or the Bible and let him remind you.
Actually, do that even if you think you don't need a reminder. Just
always do that. That's all. Okay. Love you! Have the best week, deal?
Deal.

Sister Fouts

 Haitian food!!!!!! The black stuff on top is sos pwa and it black bean
soup. You're not supposed to put it on top of food like that, but we
don't know how you're supposed to eat it. Also rebels.

 [That mouth was MADE for New york Pizza!]

 [Awww, how...strange?...Wait...what?? They can't BOTH have Giraffe shirts!!]

[Since Sister Fouts doesn't tell us much, I divined that this is her trainer, Sister Wheeler.]

ᐧ

Fwd: Bagels and pizza

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 4:49 PM
Subject: Bagels and pizza

No time, this is mostly so you all know I am not dead. I ate real New
York bagels and pizza this week! Not at the same time. Did anyone else
know bagels are a big deal in New York? I didn't until I got here, but
there are bagel shops literally everywhere. The pizza was awesome. I
will eat more of it tonight. WOOT WOOT.

I saw Throgs Neck Bridge and waved at Erin Geiger over in Bronx and
Shane Hinckley, even though I'm not sure if he's in the Bronx this
week so that was fun!
What else is about it? We had exchanges which was AWESOME. The sister
I was with reminded me so much of my cousin Kate and so now I'm
jealous of all the companions Kate had ever.
We were almost attacked by some squirrels so that was weird but no
worries, we were safe in the car. The squirrels here are INSANE.
They're scary creatures, let me tell you.
What else. Emails are hard under pressure!
Our investigators are all awesome! We're really close to baptismal
dates with a few of them! We had to drop N's because she isn't
coming to church, and we're way sad about it. But we're still working
with her and she's still awesome!
We got to lead the primary kids in singing time on Sunday and that was
hilarious! They're so much fun!
My mom sent me a shark towel and now everyone here is convinced I'm
obsessed with sharks which isn't untrue, so that's super fun!
Haha sorry this is a lame email. I love the gospel and I love being a
missionary! It's harder than I expected, but in good ways. I'm growing
and learning and it's great!
I love you all! Don't forget to pray and to rely on Christ! He can
overcome anything you're going through, pinky promise.

I love you! Have a great week!

ᐧ

Fwd: Tout bagay yo

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 4:26 PM

So this week was crazy! We had some people stop us and ask if we were
Christians, then one asked if we were Mormons, and that's how we got
almost 3 new investigators!!! Almost because we only got a return
appointment with one of them, but all three wanted to come to church
and they're friends, so it'll be easy to get the other two. It was
seriously he coolest thing! They were all talking to us at once and
they were all so excited to learn more and get our info. I've never
even thought something like that would happen!

We had a mega zone conference and the mission president came. It was
so cool! We learned so much!

N didn't come to church again, but we're still working with her.
We had to drop one of our investigators because she wasn't keeping any
commitments and that was way sad. It's hard because we don't want to
give up on anyone, but at the same time we can't be wasting the Lord's
time.

We taught more in creole! One lady told us our creole was very good,
and believed it when we said we speak it because we're from Haiti, and
another lady asked us to please speak in English because she couldn't
understand us. You can't please em all, I guess! But we're improving
and that's good to see!

One thing I really learned his week is how important families are and
how important it is to be obedient to ALL of God's commandments. Lots
of people that we teach are dealing with a lot of hard things, and
it's really sad to see people living the way they do. But if they and
their parents and their grandparents had access to and a desire to
commit to live the gospel, they would still have problems and life
would still be hard, but they'd be free from all the natural
consequences of disobedience. God gave us commandments because he
knows they'll keep us safe and happy! Follow the commandments,
friends! It will seriously work wonders. Something I really liked from
sacrament meeting was "Our family isn't perfect, and our lives aren't
perfect, and we still struggle, but we are happy!" And it's true! The
gospel truly brings us happiness!

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!
Love
Sister Fouts

PS shoutout to my young women in Bountiful for that beautiful package
of letters! It was like Christmas came early! I actually almost
started crying. The mission has done weird things to my tear ducts.
You're all amazing and I love you so much!

ᐧ

Fwd: Straight outta Lynbrook

Hello friends and family!

What a crazy week! It went by way faster than the first week I was
here, for whatever reason. We taught some more Haitians, and that was really fun. It's way exciting to get to teach in Creole, especially after teaching in English so much. One of the ladies' houses belongs on that show Hoarders. There was stuff everywhere and the chair I was perched on was about to break. It creaked and swayed around whenever I moved, so I just held really still. She talked a lot. I caught maybe 50% of it which I guess is pretty good!

We were knocking doors one day and found this girl named A. At first we thought she wasn't interested, but then she finds out we're with a church and she says, "Wow! I'm actually so glad I found you guys!" Like what? And then she called us on Friday and asked if she could get a ride to church. Um, yes. Yes you can. So that is the sweetened condensed version of my first investigator who came to church.

We also got a baptismal date set for N! She lives in Hempstead,
which is where we aren't allowed to go after 6 PM, and she is awesome! She's not coming to church, which is problematic, but hopefully we'll get that figured out soon. After we left that lesson with her where we set the date, I wanted to heel click for joy, but A) it was raining and windy and those are not good combinations with a skirt and B) we were in Hempstead and I'd probably get beat up for heel clicking so I refrained.

We had another way good lesson with an online referral (someone who requested a Bible, Book of Mormon, or missionary visits on mormon.org) and her husband. They were asking tons of questions and seem really interested! It was so great!

Then there's K. Holy cow that woman is amazing. I actually don't know why she isn't a member already. She's been coming to church for like 5 years and had an honorary calling and took the temple prep classes and everything. In our lesson she was asking more questions about the temple than she was about baptism.

We have had the most delicious food this week. The members here love feeding us and it's the best. We've had Dominican food which is incredible and Philippino food which is equally amazing and this week we have some visits with Haitian members so that will be real good!

OH I HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE FLOWERS. So there are lots of really beautiful flowers here, but lots and lots of people "plant" fake flowers. Like they get the plastic and fabric flowers from dollar tree and then they stick them in the dirt and pretend they have a really nice garden and it's the funniest thing ever.
That about sums up my week! 

Thanks for all the support, you're the best!

Avek lanmou,
Sister Fouts

Fwd: Live from New York

From July 27, 2015 Email:

Okay so my list doesn't work on my iPad, so there are significantly
less people getting this than normal. Mother, if anyone asks questions
about why I'm not emailing them anymore that is why.

Well wow! I'm really here!
The first day we landed, got our luggage in the car and went street
contacting in Jamaica Queens. It was awesome! There were people
everywhere and Haitians everywhere and food carts and snow cones and
smells and buildings and wow. We were the only white people. It was so
fun!!! I wasn't afraid to talk to people, and we placed some pamphlets
(or got people to accept the booklets we have on various principles of
the gospel.) I was the only one in my group who had fun with it
though. The other elders and sister were way freaked out. I guess I am
crazy. But it was fun!
I found the cure for cancer. It looks very sketchy, it's herbal, and
it was being sold by some guys who looked like they'd been high for a
few days. It also cures HIV and many other diseases. Who knew?
I HAVE SEEN FIREFLIES.
My companion is named Sister Wheeler and she is great! We're in the
Lynbrook area, which is more suburbs than city. We have a car. There
aren't as many Haitians out here, but there are a few in our ward and
we found a Haitian family when we were knocking doors. They let us
rift in and we had a lesson right then and there! I was able to
understand most of it and say some things. I also told them a krik
krak  and they thought it was hilarious. Because it was.
Sister Wheeler and I have found the perfect quesadilla. You take the
tortillas, some kraft Mac and cheese, some real cheese, some canned
chicken, and you make a quesadilla out of all of it. Then you melt
cheese on the outside and done.
It's beautiful here! There's so many trees! The humidity isn't
terrible, either. My hair is loving it. What else is about it?
My first day was rough. Everyone shut the door in our faces except the
Jehovah's Witness who talked at us for half an hour and the partially
deaf man in his underwear.
But since then it's been great! We've found a bunch of families who
are ready and the work is progressing! I love it! We gotta go, so I'll
talk to you more later!
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Sister Hannah Fouts

View from my kitchen window!

Fwd: Pitit zwazo yo toupatou!

From July 14 Email:

Fun things of this week.

I see Samantha Gentry and Kevbot literally all the time. If you don't know these people, I'm sorry. They're super great. 

One day we practiced tense markers outside and there were literally 15 baby quail(s?) running around under the flowers in the flower bed and it was absolutely the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Then the mom quail came and herded them away into the bushes and there was much Haitian/English squealing from me. I think all the elders in my district (so my whole district) lost some respect for me, but it's fine. I'm way over it.

We got to attend a broadcast of Elder Packer's funeral, and it was beautiful. The Holy Ghost was definitely there. It was cool to be able to here apostles testify of the Plan of Salvation and families being together forever. President Monson spoke and he is just the sweetest man on the planet. 

I started teaching a gold tag investigator named Dylan with my two companions. We actually just invited him to baptism and he accepted!! He said that he would pray about the Book of Mormon and whether or not Joseph Smith was really a prophet of God, if he really saw God and Jesus Christ, and if it was true he'd get baptized. BOO YEAH. We were feeling real good until we found out he is in fact a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints already, and then a little air was let out of our happy balloons, but not too much. The Holy Ghost was most definitely there, and we taught under His direction, so it was a success. 

Well, I ship out to New York on Monday morning at 3:30 AM. I'll be traveling with a group of 10, and I haven't met any of them before. It will be so fun! I can't believe that this time next week I'll be teaching real people. And speaking my broken Kreyol. And walking the streets of New York with a real companion. I AM SO EXCITED. LIFE IS SO GOOD. GOD LOVES YOU SO MUCH.

I'm kind of still on the first vision because of our lesson with Dylan, so get ready. I know that Jospeh Smith saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, after praying to know the truth. The power of prayer is so real. If you ask God anything, even if it's something you think you already know but you want to be reminded of, He will hear you and He will be so happy you asked and He will answer you. If you want to know if Joseph Smith really saw God, and if he was really a prophet, and if he really translated the Book of Mormon, ask God because He was there with Joseph. He would know. And He will give you a witness of the truth of that through peace in your mind and good feelings in your heart or however it is you feel the Holy Ghost.

Thanks for everything! You're all fantastic! If you have any favorite food carts in Queens or Brooklyn, hit me up. 

M renmen nou anpil!

Soeur Hannah Fouts

ᐧ

From July 7, 2015 Email:

Okay wow. I literally can't remember anything that happened this week except for the 4th of July. The 4th of July was great. There was much celebrating on my part. I was the most patriotic human at the MTC, I'm pretty sure. We had a special devotional about Murica which was great, we sang some songs and there was a parade of flags. Then the speaker stands up after about an hour of these festivities and talks FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF. We could hear the fireworks happening outside. It was torture. I definitely did not have the right attitude about that and I'm sure I could have learned a lot if I wasn't so focused on this spectacular country of ours, but I was and I have repented and let us move on. He kept saying "I know our time is short, but..." and other things like that when really what he should have said was "I know you don't actually want to hear me talk about Christopher Columbus for 20 minutes, so how about we just go watch the fireworks?" I was actually planning an escape route at one point, but as it involved leaping and I was wearing a patriotic skirt, I couldn't carry it out. But we still saw the fireworks and they were beautiful!! The only downer was the a giant tree was blocking the finale, but it's okay because we could hear it and see the light and there were glowsticks and it was so fun! Also you could see the people in the field behind the MTC, and I knew they could see the finale, so I lived vicariously through them. 

We said goodbye to lots of people this week, including our oldest District (and my companions) and our beloved Apostle Elder Packer. That makes me sad, but he served for such a long time and he did so much good in the world. He loved the scriptures, so we should too! The Lord takes care of His servants, and we know Elder Packer is at rest finally with our Father in Heaven. 

I leave for the New York in 2 weeks. It's fine. 

Also apparently shark week came early this year and this is so exciting!!! Everyone go read your scriptures and celebrate sharks! 

My new companions are great, and one of them went to USU and knew lots of the same people I do. I do not know how we didn't run into each other, but how fun is that??? So fun. That is the answer.

Also we now have a full room with 6 girls, but it's such a good thing! They are all so fun! Today we had a jam session because one of the girls has a ukulele so we sang come thou fount in a round with Joseph Smith's first Prayer and it was so fun. 

Oh! The teacher I taught with, Soeur Waldron, left for Mongolia this week. She won't be back until after I'm gone, so I'm now teaching all my lessons by myself. It's interesting, that's for sure. One of the investigators, Jean, has a baptismal date, but he really likes to drink. It's okay because we are working on that. Also Pierre, the less active member I'm teaching, is making progress as well. My teacher Fre Chandler (who is also the man who pretends to be Jean) told me to find a "gold tag" investigator. Gold tags are volunteers who just come to the MTC and hang out for a few hours so we can contact them and teach them. Some of them are members, but most of them are not. They're interested in the church and what we believe, and they're here to find out and also help us learn how to teach. So that will be fun! I'll teach the Gold Tag with my new companions, though, so that will be exciting! 

Spiritual gem of the week: A lot of times, especially as missionaries, we talk about being able to recognize the Spirit and being able to tell the difference between a prompting and just our own thoughts. A lot of people, including myself, go with the idea that if it's better than ourselves, it's the Holy Ghost prompting us. But think about this for a minute. How often do you think Christ had to be prompted by the Spirit of God? Probably never because He did everything the way He did it because He was perfect. He didn't need that help. In the bible, we learn that He gave His apostles the Holy Ghost AFTER He left them. They didn't need it when He was there because they literally had the Son of God with them to show them they way. As we become more and more Christlike, the less we will need the Holy Ghost to show us what to do. Don't get me wrong. We are imperfect and will be until the resurrection. We absolutely need the Holy Ghost for everything we do. I pray for His help and guidance probably 50 times a day. But stop worrying so much about whether it's a good thought from the Holy Ghost or a good thought or idea from you. It doesn't actually matter. Every good thing is from God, so just do it! You feel like you need to help that lady weed her garden? Go for it. It doesn't matter if it's your idea or the Holy Ghost's idea, it's a good thing to do! Don't second guess nice things just because you suspect it might not be divine inspiration. Do what Christ would do. Strive to live so you can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. It's a wonderful gift! We need to show Christ what we will do to honor it. I hope that made sense. If not, don't worry about it. Just do good stuff and you will be blessed. That's all. 

Funny thing of the week: A sister in our zone twisted her ankle really badly (not the funny part. Just wait.) during gym time, and we all thought it was broken but it wasn't (still not the funny part.) On Sunday, we walk around the Provo temple grounds, but when you are on crutches that is a hard thing to do. We get to the gate and the guard guy asks if we want a wheelchair. At that moment, an elder pushes his companion by in a wheelchair and Soeur Pace (one of my new companions) asks if we can have that since they're done with it. But here's the thing. I've seen the kid before Sunday in this wheelchair. He didn't have crutches. He needed the wheelchair, but he just is like, Uh, sure? And hops on out of it. THEN HE HOPS ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE MTC. HE HAD TO HOP UNDER THE ARM THAT STOPS CARS FROM GOING THROUGH BECAUSE THE GATE CLOSED. WE STOLE THIS POOR ELDER'S WHEELCHAIR. It was the funniest and saddest thing I've ever seen!! He was so confused but so nice! Oh my goodness gracious it was hilarious.

Okay I love you all and I will send pictures this week. Good deal. 

Avek lanmou,

Soeur Hannah Fouts

Petry our creepy vent orange.

Souer Waldron (my teaching person who left for Mongolia) and me accidentally matched and it was adorable.

Soeur Lonas and I purposefully matched the flag because America and that too was adorable.

Fwd: Bon bagay!!!

From June 30, 2015 Email:

Wow, this week has been so crazy! 

Remember how all the mission presidents and all the Apostles and the Prophet were all going to be here? Well I didn't see any of the Apostles, and there were no sightings of the Prophet, but I saw lots of mission presidents. I got to meet mine, and they are the cutest people ever. They're both really short and nice and they gave us ice cream and they told us really cool things, like how I will be trained by a Creole sister, and how they will keep us speaking our assigned languages until we have reached every person who speaks our language in our mission, which makes me happy. I was worried they'd switch me around a lot. It would be cool to pick up on other languages, but I'm sure that will still happen and I will be able to spend my whole mission with the Haitains!! HOLY COW I LOVE HAITIANS SO MUCH. Thursday and Friday, they had mission presidents practice teaching in various districts. The ones assigned to our district were President and Sister Raphael, who happen to be the future mission presidents of the Haiti Port au Prince mission. They are both Haitian, and holy cow they speak fast! Let me tell you the story of how we offended them in Haitain. It was really good.

Remember how we learn krik kraks and it's really fun? Well one of our teachers taught us a phrase that is only to be used when you're on very good terms with the person and it supposedly gets a lot of laughs. Well, Elder Child told them our new krik kraks at the end of their lesson. We got really good reactions. You can be having a perfectly normal conversation with a Haitian, but as soon as you pull out the krik kraks, it's like their 5 years old. President Raphael even pretended to be donkey for one he told us! Then we told him to say our new fun phrase. He does, and before it's halfway out of his mouth both of them are gasping and waving their arms and talking really fast and saying, "DON'T SAY THAT! DON'T SAY THAT!" Then Elder Petit (Child) got a lecture on learning the culture of the people so he doesn't offend anyone and how to never ever say that again. The poor elder looked so scared!! We were torn between laughing at his face and being as scared and apologetic as he was, but now we know. Do not call someone, even your companion, uglier than Jean Jacques Desaline. Ever. It is bad. Just say no. 

We got to teach in TRC, which is where members who speak our language come and we teach them as themselves instead of as fake investigators. There was a mix of return missionaries who spoke Haitian and Haitians, and we got to teach a few of each. It was so cool! Wow I love Haitians. Have I said that already?

Also, as far as other languages go, I accidentally said my prayer last night starting in French, half Kreyol and half English in the middle, and ending in Kreyol. It's a confusing life. On top of that, one of the elders in my zone is from Tanzania and he is teaching me Swahili. Then I made friends with an elder from somewhere in Africa going to Madagascar, and he is teaching me words in Malagese (I think that's what it is.) WOW! ALL THE LANGUAGES! 

I have 3 more weeks here, and it's weird to think that I'm half way through my time here. I'm a little nervous because I have so much left to learn, but at the same time, I am so excited for NY. BUT I've started teaching almost all my lessons on my own, and I can now teach without notes in complete Kreyol. Holy cow life is cool. Also on Sunday they picked me to speak and I gave the whole talk in Kreyol. SO FUN!!! 

OH! Funny thing. So they made all the sisters move into a really big, nice new building called 17M. We moved in on Tuesday. Then they discovered bats, so they had us move back out of 17M and into a different building to avoid the rabies disease. It was very deceptive, actually. They called an emergency sisters' meeting, and everyone thought this was when we'd meet our general authority!! Then he's like, so we about to straight up change yo lives. We were even more excited then, and no he didn't actually talk like that. Then he's says, you are moving back out of 17M! My comp and I were actually pleased with this because the new rooms had weirdly large, open showers and small closets, but there were 6 closets so we had one specifically for snacks. We even had them organized by drawer, so that was a bummer, but other than that it was fine. We ran home and packed up and moved! All the elders in the MTC helped out, and it was just one enormous moving party! It was so fun! We helped sisters move their stuff up the stairs, because the elders couldn't come in the residence building. After every sister in the MTC was moved, I realized I was missing two of my suitcases. So then we had adventure number whatever and went to find my luggage!! Don't worry, I found it. It was good. Especially because one of them only had my pillow in it, which would have been sad to lose.

Also we now have a mini fridge. Don't ask. It may or may not say "MTC Dining Facilities" on it. We keep ice cream and drinks from the cafeteria in it and for some reason my roommate keeps fruit snacks in the freezer part of it. That is all. 

Life is so fun!!

Also can we talk about the Holy Ghost for a minute? He is just the coolest. Once you're confirmed, you can have the constant companionship of the 3rd member of the Godhead. HOLY CRAP. SUPER COOL. Also I really love the scriptures. They are my favorite! So moral of the story is live worthy of the Holy Ghost, because He loves you just like our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ and He will give you all the guidance you ask for! Wow. So cool. Okay. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week, friends! 

Avek lanmou,

Soeur Fouts

ᐧ

Fwd: I'm sorry we're embarrassing, but do you want a donut?

From June 23, 2015 Email:

Bon jou!! 

I'm officially in week 3, even though I've only had two P days. Weeks are really confusing here because I haven't figured out when they start (Wednesday or Monday?). But it's been so good! All the new mission presidents are having training here this week, so all the Apostles and President Monson will be here at one point or another over the course of the week. Tonight some of them are speaking to us, I will let you know who next week!! I also get to meet my mission president on Friday since I'm getting a new one. How cool is that??

So remember how I'm a solo sister but teach with a worker? Well turns out we now have 3 lessons a day and she can only be here for one of them. So I teach two lessons by myself starting tomorrow. Yesterday I only taught one by myself. It went surprisingly well for me not knowing the language and not having a companion who speaks French and can at least communicate with our investigators. It definitely helps that our investigators are our teachers, but one of them starting tomorrow will not be. That will be interesting, but I'm so excited! 

On Sunday we had interviews with the Branch Presidency. They told me how happy they were to have me here and how I helped the elders in my district so much. They thanked me for keeping them in line and bringing the Spirit so much more to my district. Later that week, one elder was making paper cranes out of sticky notes, one elder was drawing a picture of Joseph Smith on the whiteboard, another was spinning around the room in his chair, and another was standing on the desk hiding the paper cranes in the lights. Sorry, President Dowling. I will work on that. 

But about my lessons, because I'm really happy about those still, one of the investigators is a less active member. He believes everything about the Church except that God loves him. I don't know how that works, but okay. I was bearing my testimony to him in broken Kreyol. It sounded like this in English: I know God loves you. I know you pray you know God loves you too. You pray? You read Mosiah chapter 5? I know God loves you a lot. 

Like okay, that's going to convert all the people. Not. FALSE. The Holy Ghost was so strong!! I almost started crying, which is weird for me, and I could tell he felt it too. He agreed to read and said he'd think about praying. HUZZAH!!!! It was the best moment of my life. Because the cool thing about being a missionary is that it doesn't actually matter how you say the truth. Even in my most basic testimony, the Holy Ghost was able to work around the language barrier. "Seek not to declare my word, but seek first to obtain my word." It's super the coolest. 

About the subject line, my companion is going to Canada. I think that should explain it.

Thanks again to everyone for all the support!! It's absolutely amazing! You're wonderful! 

I hope you have a wonderful week and if you haven't prayed yet today, go do that. The power of prayer is incredible. If you have any question about whether or not God is aware of you, stop questioning. One thing that they talked about in the Sunday Devotional was that every single challenge we have was hand picked for us to help us be stronger and learn to rely on the Lord. He loves you so much, and He will help you through whatever crappy things you're facing right now. He knows what it's like to be in your place, because when He performed the Atonement He was there. Trust in Him no matter what!

I love you all!

Soeur Fouts

ᐧ

Fwd: M' ap boule!

From June 16, 2015 Email:

Bon jou zanmi e fanmi mwen!! Kijan ou ye?

I have officially survived the first week of the MTC. They told us you could split your mission into thrids - the first 3 days, the rest of the MTC, and the rest of your mission. I'll let you know if it's true or not, but I think it might be.

Sister Paget and Sister Dutson picked me up on Wednesday and it was seriously the greatest thing that has ever happened. Also I love the MTC. I love it so so so much. 

Here is the down low. I'm a solo sister, meaning I'm the only sister in my district. My companion is Sister Lonas, and she and my other two roommates are going to Montreal speaking French, and they've been here for 3 weeks already. They are already halfway done, how crazy is that? So most of my day is spent in a very small classroom (which I love) with 5 elders (who are great most of the time) and 3 of them graduated high school two weeks ago (it shows). Our zone is made up of 3 districts, two speaking French and our Kreyol district. I'm the only one going to NY. I hardly spend any time with my companion, which is sad because Seour (Sir, but more French) Lonas is amazing, but I guess I don't have a chance to get sick of her! I go a lot of places with my elders, and people think I'm breaking all the rules but I'm not, pinky promise. 

About the subject line. Our first day, we dropped our stuff off in our rooms and went straight to our classrooms where the teacher starts yappin at me in Kreyol and I am not understanding a word coming out of that man's mouth. The first thing he teaches us is basic conversation starters, like Kijan ou ye (how are you?) and S' ak pase (wassup?) Then we said them off to each other. The answer to S' ak pase was M' ap boule, which means I'm buring up!! Which is accurate for everything about this place. First of all I am literally burning up. Like it's so hot. Everywhere. They don't have AC or something. Second, the Spirit is so strong here! You feel it everywhere you go! So I'm burning up with the Spirit of God, too! Then I'm burning up because Kreyol is so fast. We met our first Ayisyen investigator on yesterday, and we just started by saking him questions. I had to read every word off a paper and I understood maybe 5 of his words. I seriously felt like crying after he left. Then we had 2 hours minus a half hour for dinner to prepare a lesson to teach Jean. In Kreyol. AH. But then the lesson went so well! I taught with an MTC worker who speaks French since my companion is not really my 24/7 companion. But because we didn't have a lot of time to translate, my testimony was not written out. BUT. I was still able to testify of the truth of the restored gospel to this man! It was amazing! I could understand almost everything he said, too! And he agreed to keep the committments we gave him! M' AP BOULE! The gift of tounges is real, my friends!

Some of the funnier things that have happened: 

Elder Ariotti (who is my district leader. also i went to high school with him.) and I guessed each other's spirit animals in no more than 3 guesses. His is a blue whale. Mine is a silverback gorilla. We even got the blue and the silverback parts in that amount of guessing. BOOM. 

We found a rotting orange with a sombrero and a mustache in the vent above my bed. It's name is Petry, which was the name of our ghost that we blame things on. We don't know how long it's been there, but when we unscrewed the vent it smelled really bad. No, we didn't take it out. Petry will be our legacy for the next group of sisters. 

Also, can I just say thanks to everyone?? You are all seriously the best. I feel so loved! I've received more letters and emails in the last week than I ever have ever. You all rock. My entire district is jealous. You da bomb.com/diggity!!!

Next part. This won't apply to everyone, but I'm putting it in anyway for the people who will know. 

These are all the people I've seen and talked to so far:

Sister Paget (Holla at yo gurl)

Sister Orchard

Sister Dutson

Sister Jones

Sister Toomey

Sister Kartchner

Elder Ariotti

Elder Wilson 

Elder Baskin

Elder Thornock

Elder Lewis

Elder Atwood

Wow all the people!

Okay. Wrapping up. Dezole. I'm so thankful to be a missionary! I love it so much! It's hard and we study A LOT. Like if we aren't eating or teaching, we are studying. Study all the days. But I love every minute of it! I've learned so much already and I can't believe how much I love the gospel and how much I love Kreyol Ayisyen! It's amazing! Thanks again for everything, you are all great!

Avek tout renmen mwen,

Seour Fouts